Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition™ includes the entire Baldur's Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never-before-seen content including a new adventure and three new party members: the Calishite monk Rasaad yn Bashir, Neera the wild mage, and Dorn Il-Khan, the evil blackguard.

October 2, 2014

We're pleased to announce that Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition now supports Steamplay for Mac! This means that if you own the game, you can install and play it on any machine running either Windows or Mac OS X. The Mac version is already updated with the latest 1.3.2053 patch and is ready to install now.

Reviews

"The writing of Baldur's Gate has always been one of its strongest aspects. The story remains unchanged and still holds up."

8.5/10 - Destructoid"Hammers out a multitude of bugs found in the original release, as well as introduces brand new characters, storylines, and modes to play through.

8.5/10 - Inside Gaming Daily"Enhanced Edition has received a number of visual upgrades including support for high resolutions that provide a far more panoramic view of the game's lovely, lush backgrounds, and a mousewheel-controlled zoom function for quickly shifting to a more down-and-dirty view of the battlefield."
The Escapist

About This Game

Since its initial release in 1998, Baldur's Gate has entertained millions of fans around the globe and has received countless awards. This classic saga of mystery, intrigue, and adventure has set the standard for Dungeons & Dragons™ computer roleplaying games ever since.

Running on an upgraded and improved version of the Infinity Engine, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition™ includes the entire Baldur's Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never-before-seen content including a new adventure and three new party members: the Calishite monk Rasaad yn Bashir, Neera the wild mage, and Dorn Il-Khan, the evil blackguard.

One of the greatest games of all time. The Enhanced Edition is still the same great game but with a few new companions and quality of life improvements, such as loot/item, chest/container, and character name highlighting when pressing tab, as well as a zoom function. The new companions are pretty nice. I played a lot with Dorn Il-Khan, the Half-Orc Blackguard, which is an evil and twisted reflection of the lawful good paladin, and I really like him a lot. He is an interesting character with a cool personality, and has an awesome class kit. He really adds a lot to an Evil party. The improvements and companions are not essential by any means, but they are nice. A lot of people complained about bugs when the EE was first released, but I'm happy to say that with the 1.3 patch, this has been eliminated. I played through the whole game and did not encounter any noticeable bugs. If you have never played Baldur's Gate, this is definitely the definitive version of the game, and the one to get. It's a 150+ hour game, so even at the full price of $20 you get your moneys worth for sure. If you have played Baldur's Gate, buy it on sale and enjoy a great excuse to replay a fantastic game.

Now this here is some old-school RPG goodness brought back to modern systems in a quick and easy package in the Enhanced Edition. Adding widescreen support, new characters and locations, it still remains the classic adventure as it ever was.

If you haven't noticed yet, this game, it's old, don't expect any shiny graphics or groundbreaking gameplay. Give it a chance though, it has tons of content, it retains its charm and the challenge that a lot of mainstream games nowadays simply do not provide. Many characters with their own alignments can be found to form wildly different parties, giving it replayability, and the multitude of sidequests and locations pretty much make it guaranteed that you won't get to see it all in one go.

The plot itself is alright, but maybe that's because I played the sequel first so I was already aware of the plot twists. I strongly recommend you start with this game before moving on to BG2, if you've never touched them, you're in for a treat. Especially since you can import your BG1 character into BG2, giving it a sense of continuity. You don't get to experience the sequel differently like the Mass Effect series kind of does if you do import your character, but the stats, name, etc, do carry over.

It's amongst my favorites due to the link it shares with BG2. I like BG1, but BG2 just blows it out of the water, making the original a mandatory playthrough. Get it.

This is my first review so bear with me. It's Baldur's Gate 1 without the annoying UI and with some extra content. If you like Baldur's Gate and aren't familiar with modding then this game is for you. But if you never played Baldur's Gate then allow me to go over some of the details.

Story- It's is rather interesting if you do not mind reading a lot. Altough the start is rather slow, once you get midway into the game it begins to pick up a lot.

Gameplay- Difficult, but once you understand the basics then it can be rather fun. However the combat is not for everyone, it's very tactical and can be slow in the start.

Charcters- Other than the extra characters added in by Beamdog, the orginal charcters have little personality. The extras have conversations with you and offer extra areas and items. They serve their purpose as party members.

Overall, if you are willing to surive the lower levels and keep going forward then this game is for you. If you lack patience and dislike older games then just forget about it. There is a huge learning curve and unless you are willing to learn then I would advise against purchasing this game.

I personally love this game and love Baldur's Gate 2 even more. If I had to give the game a numerical value it would be 85/100. Beamdog did a good job with optimization and a lot more accessable to the public than it used to be.

It's awesome. Baldur's Gate really shows off how good of a ruleset D&D is. There are any number of ways to play the campaign, solo, or with a party of up to six of probably fifty distinctly different character builds. I played for over 85 hours in just a single play through of Baldur's Gate and the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion content, which is included here.

An old classic in a new coat. The entire Baldur's Gate series is definitely one of the best RPGs ever made so you can't go wrong with this one. Game itself contains an epic story, challenging battles and exploration of the Sword Coast. Enhanced Edition brings some bonus content and graphical improvements as well. However during my gameplay I have encountered some minor bugs in quest log but this is really not a big deal if you are intereted in deep RPG experience.

One of my all-time favourite games. Still holds up perfectly today. I enjoy how it's more open and loosely structured than the sequel, which gives the game a real sense of adventure as you don't know what you will stumble across next. Enhanced Edition content is ~okay~, tonally it's different to the OG content so it sticks out a bit, but it's worth a playthrough. The addition of Neera means there is now an excellent good-aligned mage to recruit. QOL improvements make this the definitive version.

The enhanced edition has made some slight improvements in mechaniks that really helps. They have also put in some stuff from BG2 which is nice. The new artstyle is horrible though and the new characters are lousy.

The character creation is the thing they really improved upon and I love it. Finally the ranger can be a good archer, finally I can use 2 swords, finally paladins are... well, paladins are still useless.

If you never played this game before there are some things you want to know. This is a game with low levels. Your mage will be über-helpfull but wont be a source of epic power. You will have to gett a team of six characters which by themself wont do much, but togheter will rock. The gameplay in this RPG is focused on strategy and balance between the characters in your team. This is no hack&slash no brainer. Not to say that it is major brainer, but still. It is a game with good story, funny sidecharacters and entertaining gameplay.

Baldur's Gate is truly a masterpiece. Despite it's beauty, tactical depth and great story, the game does not take itself too seriously. This cannot be said of many other leading RPG titles, which I soon begin to find rather corny. If you like RPGs and have not played Baldur's Gate, then this is an absolute must, you do not even need to waste your time reading this review but of course you are welcome to. If you have played the original BG and are curious about Beamdog's boob job, I share with you my opinion.

The original game's two main lackings are native widescreen support and Linux support (I use Ubuntu/Mint). Interestingly, the Steam store lists BGEE as a Windows/Mac title, while BG2EE is listed as Windows/Mac/Linux. Both titles run perfectly on Linux since the latest patches.

The reason for me to buy Beamdog's re-release was simply curiosity. Where would anyone find the guts to mess with this classic work of art? What would they change about it?

First looks and User InterfaceMy first impression of BGEE was honestly not that great. It was still before Linux support was added. The aesthetics just turned me off. The changed logo, the sword with the text "Enhanced Edition", the user interface which had it's old-skool goldish buttons replaced with red "open-missile-silo-doors"-buttons. It all just took away some of the original game's magic. Perhaps mostly nostalgic feelings on my part.

Once hours inside the game the UI didn't really bother me anymore. Since recent updates, I was pleasantly surprised by the "Quick loot"-button that was added to the bottom panel. This made looting a whole lot easier, since it is no longer necessary to check all the corpses individually for good loot, potions, scrolls, etc.

More aestheticsNot only the UI has had a makeover. The movies are also replaced. The new ones are not 3d-animated like the old ones. The new movies are built from nice artistic drawings. The drawings look really good and are accompanied by the trusty old sounds of the original game.

The character models have also been updated, though they are still not 'HD'. The pre-rendered environments are still the same as in the original BG. These were already stunningly beautiful anyway, no need to make changes there.

GameplayThere are some major changes to the gameplay. Characters are now created in the same fashion as in BG2. This means that not only can one choose from various classes, but many classes have kits to choose from, with each its own abilities and restrictions. Also, the Half-Orc is now a playable race as in BG2.

Weapon proficiencies are also updated to the BG2 standard, which means that the points are no longer put into groups of weapons (for example there used to be one group of large swords, containing two-handed, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and long swords and another group of blunt weapons, containing staves, maces, clubs and hammers). The new system forces you to choose specific weapons, thus making switching between various weapons in the same group impossible if you have not spent any points on the other weapon.

Because of the relatively low level cap in BG1, you will find each character using one or two types of weapons throughout the whole game. This is not a problem, but it is a significant deviation from the original. The weapon styles from BG2 have also been added. This new proficiency system works really well at the higher character levels achieved in BG2, but has minor shortcomings in a game where characters reach level 8-10 and thus do not have too many points to spend.

Two-Weapon FightingAs mentioned before, the weapon styles from BG2 have been imported. Two-Weapon Fighting is now also possible, which adds lots of fun to the game. You are now able to shred your opponents in seconds, sacrificing the protection of a shield. While shields in BG are not too powerful and one can easily manage without, dual-wielding is somewhat (if not more) overpowered. My Half-Orc berserker has 3 attacks per round wielding dual ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ swords. With 19 strenght, 3 points in two-weapon fighting, 3 in ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sword and berserker rage (granting protection against hold, fear and other hazards, plus combat bonuses) he is an insanely strong melee fighter, one you would never encounter in the original game.

Special abilitiesI mentioned the berserker rage, but many of the class kit abilities are very powerful. Some good examples are the priest of Helm's Seeking Sword (3 attacks per round with huge THAC0 bonus) and True Sight. The newly added "Shadowdancer" kit with its hide-in-plain-sight ability is also quite powerful, being able to backstab, hide and backstab again. There are many more new abilities that will aid you in your fight against (or for your own) evil.

BalanceThe battles in BG1 often used to be insanely difficult, but they were not designed for all these newly added features. This makes the enhanced edition somewhat less challenging than the original, but still very challenging. Only the greatest tactical geniuses would complain that the game has become easy. You should consider putting the difficulty slider one notch to the right compared to what you were used to in the original. Because of all the new additions, you will be well equipped for some tougher beasties.

New adventuresFor me, not too interesting. They are not of the same quality as the original storyline. Then again, that quality is extremely rare. If you do not like the new quests then you can always just skip them.

ConclusionThe enhanced edition is a welcome re-release of a brilliant game. It offers some great improvements while leaving just minor scars.

+Native support for widescreen and higher resolutions+Native support for Mac and Linux (no more messing around with Wine)+Zoom function (though when zoomed in the game looks a bit crude)+Quick loot function eliminates the hassle of searching every corpse individually+New kits and abilities add fun+Bug fixes+Beamdog still provides updates, they have shown their love for this game and do not seem to have done all this for some easy cash (unlike some others).

-Aesthetics (mainly logo and user interface) could have been better/more faithful to the original-The balance and difficulty of the game are slightly compromised by addition of the new kits, abilities and two-weapon fighting.

Baldurs gate and baldurs gate 2 are two of the best story driven d&d fantasy games that have ever been created from the characters to the primary plot line to the dialog and choices you make in the game hands down this franchise changed how we enjoy our games and the way they affect us and the way we affect the universe we are playing in mass effect dragon age they both started here first a must play and a must experiance game if you are into fantasy epics! two thumbs way up! love this game!!!

Now, this is not the type of updated/enhanced version that changes what the game is. Not in the least. It is still very much the same old school Baldur's Gate I first fell in love with. If I were to issue any complaint, it's that the AI is still incredibly dumb and it took only 10 minutes of having NPCs to realize, "Oh yeah... that. They didn't fix that at all."

But you do notice all the little tweaks they added and despite its age, the gameplay is relatively smooth, once you et the hang of the controls.

I remember the first time I played the original, I took a Half-Elven Magic User and let fighter NPCs take point. This time, I decided to be a bit more adventuerous and took a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist. I was a bit disappointed to learn that it wouldn't be the classic AD&D Illusionist, but a modified Magic User, but in terms of game play for Baldur's Gate, that actually works out quite well.

I'm looking forward to a bit of a game break, but my next one will definitely be the enhanced Baldur's Gate 2.

This was before RPG's became dumbed down, open world hack and slash action games and completely lost their depth and the meaning of the genre entirely, Baldur's Gate is an extremely brilliant addition to the cRPG genre and easily among the top 3 games of it's kind. It has tough gameplay that may be off putting for beginners early on in the game and may take a while for some people to get into it, but what you'll be left with is a game that may kick you in the teeth occasionally but is as rewarding as games get.

Baldurs gate primarly focusses on micromanagement, giving you a party of up to 6 units to control, each and will need to play their role in order for your adventure to be successful, experimenting in BG is key, could take a few restarts before you're happy with your character.

This game uses the Dungeons & Dragons rule set, which I have come to appreciate quite a lot within the last few years, actions your party do will be affected by dice rolls which adds unpredictability and suspense to the combat.

The Enhanced version of Baldur's Gate is well done in a sense that they haven't changed much, this is basically the original with a vastly improved resolution and a few better effects, the visuals in this version remain true and set the mood for fantasy experience.

Baldur's Gate, while being a pretty complex game is also accessible to those who have patience to learn as they go along, while it may be brutal near the beginning, the sense of having a party you're finally comfortable with is like no other, while it does throw you in the deep end of pool seemingly filled with custard, it soon gets incredibly fun.

This is one of the greats of the RPG genre and puts anything released in the last decade to shame, this along with Planescape Torment are some of my favourite games of all time. Don't expect this to hold your hand, a lot of patience is required and expect to have to speak to a ton of NPC's for information and receiving quests and expect to get one shotted often in some annoying encounters.

It must be added that the portions added by Beamdog are disgustingly horrific and have some of the worst writing I've ever seen in a videogame, ever, I hope to God they don't make Baldur's Gate 3.

Depressed people with pointy ears in underground dungeons, teenage stalker girls with ironic names, Russian guys with big hammers who want to hurt you and an old creepy guys who keeps popping out of bushes.

ever since Black Isle created this series and Icewind Dale I have been a fan. I suck at these games but I keep playing and playing because the graphics, soundtrack and story are fantastic. Throw Steam your cash and buy this beast of classic play.

Great classic. Especially for older machines, you can easy spend a couple of weeks to finish this game. I can't agree with the negative reviews regarding the original Baldur's Gate being better, i played it ages ago and i don't feel any difference.